Mike’s Music Dojo · La Crosse, Wisconsin

A training hall
for guitar

Dōjō means “the place of the way.” This one is for guitar: Mike James’s method books, online and in order, one step at a time.

Enter the Dojo Tune up first ▸

What is a dojo?

The seat of awakening

A dojo is a training hall, a room set aside for the disciplined practice of a martial art like judo, karate, aikido or kendo, or of one of the traditional Japanese arts.

The idea is older than the word. It comes from the Sanskrit bodhimaṇḍa, the “seat of awakening.” The first dojos were halls in Buddhist temples, kept for meditation and practice.

A dojo is more than a gym. It’s a place where body, mind and character are trained together. Learning an instrument works the same way.

Mind Shin

Understand what you play. Build chords instead of memorizing them, and see the theory behind every grip.
- Inversion Guitar Chord Method ▸
- Grip Chord Method for Guitar ▸
Technique Gi

Train the forms until your hands know them: patterns for the picking hand, and scale positions that let you read anywhere on the neck.
- Right Hand Patterns for Guitar ▸
- Positional Reading Method for Guitar ▸
Body Tai

Put it in your hands every day. Tune up, keep time with the metronome, and play along with tracks you can slow down.
- Guitar tuner ▸

The training halls

Four methods, step by step

Each book online, in the order of the printed book: a short lesson, then playing that puts it to work.

Beginners start here Inversion Guitar Chord Method Learn to build guitar chords instead of memorizing them: three shapes, five alterations, and 42 songs to play along the way. Begin · 73 steps ▸

Right Hand Patterns for Guitar Every right-hand technique in one method: 275 patterns for strumming, finger picking, flat picking and hybrid picking, each one playable. Begin · 37 steps ▸

Grip Chord Method for Guitar Moveable chords for jazz and popular music: 76 grips with the root on the 6th or 5th string, each showing its theory and fingering, in any key. Begin · 15 steps ▸

Positional Reading Method for Guitar Read standard notation anywhere on the neck: six scale patterns and twelve etudes, one in every key, played in every position. Begin · 21 steps ▸

In print, coming to the Dojo later: Modern Methods for Improvisation · Electric Bass Reading Method

How to train

The order of a practice session

1
Bow in Rei

Start by tuning up. The tuner is at the top of every page.
2
Learn the form Kata

Each step teaches one thing: a shape, a pattern, a position. Stay with it until your hands know it.
3
Practice Keiko

Then put it to work in songs and etudes, with play-along tracks slowed down as far as you need.
4
Beginner’s mind Shoshin

Mark the step done and come back tomorrow. The Dojo keeps your place, on every device when you sign in.

Your teacher

Mike James

Mike has taught guitar and bass since 1994, privately and at university. He teaches at Leithold Music in La Crosse and Reed's Music Studio in Onalaska, and is adjunct music faculty at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Every lesson in the Dojo comes from his method books, each an organized approach to the instrument.

Private lessons Mike James, the musician ↗

Further study